Pinnacle 800i doesn't work?
 

I'm using a Pinnacle PCTV 800i on Windows 10 64. This is a PCI card (not PCI-e), and Windows Update has the drivers for it. They installed and looked happy. It's connected to OTA antenna in the US.

I cannot get this card to do anything in Windows. Virtualdub doesn't list any input sources. The included Pinnacle application gives an error when scanning channels. NextPVR will scan channels, but doesn't find any. Because I was planning to install a fresh copy of Windows 10 anyway, I wiped the drive and tried Windows 7 and it still doesn't work. Then wiped it again and installed Windows 10 with no change.

A little background: I have had a Hauppauge PCI-e capture board for years which worked great, but recently went from the onboard GPU to an add-in, which sticks into the area of the only other PCI-e slot. I have a PCI slot below that and so got this 800i unopened.

Lastly, I ran a Linux live CD and bingo, Kaffeine will scan channels and display them! So the card is good, and this is all using the same computer/antenna/everything.

Maybe this isn't the usual question on this board, but I really don't know where else ask. I can't understand how the device drivers install without issue, yet something as straightforward as Virtualdub shows no input sources.

That's an ancient Pinnacle card, made for Windows MCE. Not legacy, no longer really useful, just plain damned old. Most of those MCE cards fail to work properly, or at all, in standard capture usage, and/or in Win OS past MCE. Those were for watching TV in the mid 00s.

Most Pinnacle and PCTV cards are actually married to certain software, and don't work in anything else. Quite a few cards were like that in the 00s, frmo multiple brands.

I don't doubt that Linux distros can see it, as Linux has always been very PVR-centric. Linux has always been lousy for capturing, but excellent for PVR. Again, Windows MCE was the Microsoft attempt at PVR, and that didn't last long, as PVR was largely a fad at streaming infancy, '06-10 or so, then gone. PVR almost entirely lives on in Linux, and only Linux.

Gahh that sucks. Oh well I didn't pay much for it. Any recommendations for well-supported TV tuner/capture in PCI format?

If you have any desire to capture videotapes (VHS, etc), then you need to get a quality card just for that purpose.

There were several great PVR cards in the analog era, but I'm not aware of any for the HD era. Modern OTA is a PITA, HDMI has HDCP for cable and satellite now. My favorite PVR for QAM was a Philips DVD recorder, but only 16x9 720x480. My unit failed, and cable now has anti-copy on the digital channels anyway (Grex helped, but not 100%).

I no longer do any timeshifting, purely a purveyor of streaming now, even paying for Disney+, Peacock, Hulu, Max, CNBC Pro, Amazon Prime. More TV than I have time to watch.

I wish I could help more, but my knowledge runs out quickly on PVR in the 2020s.

If your PCTV card works in Linux, then just use Linux. I use Windows, and Mac, but I'm no fan of either. Just tools to me. I often prefer Linux desktops for certain tasks, especially Mint and Xubuntu.

This would be only for recording the rare segment from OTA and occasional digitizing from tape. The Hauppauge I was using worked fine for that but now my GPU hogs up its space.

I have contemplated switching to Linux many times over frustrations with the Windows 10 "virus" but it's hard to because of a few Windows-only applications. Maybe someday.

Off to eBay to see what's out there. Far cheaper than replacing my MB/CPU/RAM.

Why choose? I have a dedicated boxes for Windows XP, 7, 10, 11, Linux Mint, Xubuntu, Mac Intel, Mac M.
KVM is your friend.

That's something I can certainly do, but it's a lot just to use a card I paid not much for, for the once/year I use it. If I can't get this working, and the outlook isn't great, I see eBay has new HVR-1150 for $27 shipped.

But it still drives me nuts why this card behaves like this. It's taunting me with the easy install and....no functionality. One thing I noticed is I probably installed the Media Center driver.

http://www.pctvsystems.com/Support/Downloads/Driver/tabid/123/language/en-US/Default.aspx (third line from the bottom. BTW you can tell this website is old with its FTP links!)

I uninstalled it and instead used the XP, Vista, Win7 driver. But it still doesn't work. I'm wondering if Windows is hoarding some of the driver files somewhere and using those even though I point it to the correct location.

WinTV sucks, so better verify it works with better PVRs.

Welcome to video! Having fun yet? :laugh: